Restaurant owner goes to jail

Daniel Tepfer

Published 5:17 pm, Tuesday, February 19, 2013

BRIDGEPORT -- The owner of a popular Stamford restaurant claimed Tuesday prosecutors were just splitting hairs when they accused him of soliciting his barber to hire a "hitman" to break the legs of a construction worker who refused to give him a kickback on jobs.

"I was just venting in a barbershop and I'll never do anything like that again," pleaded Joseph Gabriele, the owner of Monster B's.

But Superior Court Judge George Thim said Gabriele, 56, clearly intended to have the victim "hit," and sentenced him to three years, suspended after he serves one year in prison and followed by three years probation.

"Those who would hire persons to do harm to others will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Senior Assistant State's Attorney Howard Stein said later.

In December a jury here found Gabriele guilty of inciting injury to persons.

During the week-long trial, the barber, Josue Silva-Velazquez, who works at a shop on High Ridge Road in Stamford, testified Gabriele solicited him to get him a hitman to break the legs of the intended victim. Because the barber had a previous drug conviction and lived in Bridgeport Gabriele believed he would be able to find a hitman, according to testimony.

However, the man Silva-Velazquez found turned out to be an undercover state police detective.

On April 6, 2011, Silva-Velazquez met the "hitman" at the intersection of Stoehr Place and Main Street here. At the meeting, which was recorded, police said Silva-Velazquez gave the informant the name and address of the intended victim with the instructions that the assault not happen in front of the victim's Stamford home.

In the recording of the meeting, played for the jurors, Silva-Velazquez made a phone call to a man he identified only as "G" to request a photo of the intended victim for the hitman.

Police said they later approached the intended victim and asked him if he knew of anyone who might what to do him harm. The only one who might fit that bill, the man answered was Gabriele.

Police said Gabriele, while a general manager of a Norwalk construction company had hired the intended victim as a subcontractor on a construction project. However, when Gabriele was later fired from the company he ordered the intended victim to give him kickbacks from construction projects he was working on. But the intended victim refused.

Shortly after talking to the intended victim, police said they arrested Silva-Vazquez and charged him with attempted first-degree assault. They said he subsequently agreed to cooperate with their investigation and testify against Gabriele.